A Dangerous Mission
by Troublesome Shikamaru Fan
Summary: Ino never knew that eating barbecue with Choji would be so dangerous.  This story features dares gone wrong, meddling mothers, an ambush, a rescue, and an ending that might rot your teeth.
1. At the Korean Barbecue

**A/N: This is part one of two, and you can expect to see part two posted this weekend. After much debate, I went with the "Chouji" spelling rather than "Choji," since that seems to be the acceptable spelling around here. Enjoy!**

It was a late, lazy afternoon at the Korean Barbecue, and Ino felt at peace for the first time in months. Bathed in warm slanting light and pleasantly drowsy, she watched Chouji settle strips of beef on the grill between them with unusual care. She wondered if he felt as relaxed as she did, as willing to allow the afternoon to extend into evening as they sat in the booth they'd shared since childhood, their legs tangled unselfconsciously beneath the narrow table.

"Are they still up there?" Chouji asked. The meat sizzled, hissing when he prodded the raw curls of beef with his chopstick.

It had rained that morning. When Ino looked across a shimmering lake of reflected light to the inn across the street, she had to squint against the glare. Even with a hand shielding her eyes, she couldn't see Temari's usual window.

"I think so. I can't see, but the door hasn't opened since we sat down."

"Hee."

His glee made Ino smile. "So, you really think he'll tell her this time?" Chouji was the one who knew Shikamaru best, even now, which meant he was probably right.

Ino put her elbow on the table and leaned out of the sunlight, chin on hand as she studied her friend. Some of the sorrow had left his face since she last saw him at Daisuko's funeral, and that made her glad. After the death of his genin that spring, and the guilt that followed, she'd been afraid he might never smile again.

"Yeah. I think Shikamaru will really do it this time." Chouji was smiling to himself, remembering something. Ino caught a whiff of the seared meat. It smelled so good today.

"But this is Lazy Ass we're talking about." Ino smirked. "Telling her after this many years is just un-Shikamaru-ish. Why bother now?"

"I dared him to," Chouji said. He looked uncharacteristically nervous given the situation, but that seemed to change when he noticed her watching him. Then, he just looked evasive.

"Huh." There was a story there, a chain of events she couldn't quite believe: Chouji daring Shikamaru, Shikamaru taking the dare despite avoiding the subject of Temari for at least half a decade, and then Chouji being evasive about the whole thing as though he could actually hide anything from her. "He's telling her because of a dare?" Ina scrunched up her face. "I mean...that's completely lame."

A cloud passed overhead, and Ino glanced out the window in time to watch the upper room's curtain close in a clashing swirl of material, shuttering the world from within. Ino felt her eyes bulge at the brief glimpse of flesh she'd seen. Lame or not, it looked like someone had been successful.

She fisted the air.

"Hell yeah, Shikamaru! Chouji, did you see?" She started laughing and expected Chouji to laugh with her, but he just looked miserable. Ino leaned across the table to punch his arm. "You were right again, Chouji!"

Chouji didn't seem too pleased by this turn of events. He might as well have been Tsunade winning the lottery. Ino shook her head. _Looks like he's got to uphold his end of a bargain that he doesn't like. That must have been some dare. _But, looking at him, Ino realized that - whatever that dare was - she didn't feel like teasing Chouji about it right now. His sadness made her uncomfortable.

"Hey. Thanks for inviting me out," she said instead.

He prodded the meat with the tip of one chopstick. "Had to when I saw your mom at the market." He was frowning at the grill, and Ino expected him to say, "Let's eat," at any moment, but he didn't. In fact, Chouji had let the meat cook much longer than usual. Ino's stomach twanged, but she didn't mention her hunger. He was always picky about how long the beef cooked, and she didn't feel like arguing about it tonight. "My team leaves again tomorrow morning and I was getting supplies-when your mom heard, she said I had to take you out before I go."

Ino felt a mixture of excitement, embarrassment, and dread. _Mom said that, huh? _

It wasn't surprising. Ino's mother had been harping about Chouji ever since she found that stack of Chouji's old letters in Ino's pouch five missions ago. Ten missions ago? Mom had come at her with a stack of her own: accusations regarding her intentions toward Chouji and assumptions of affection that Ino hadn't wanted to face then but had been unable to avoid ever since the funeral.

The day of Daisuko's funeral, Ino didn't have time to change out of her uniform. She felt guilty standing beside Chouji, still stinking from campfire smoke and sweat because she'd rushed her team to get to Konoha in time. She murmured that she would move downwind, but he held her hand and told her to stay beside him. That day they stood in the cemetary, side by side, just as they had stood for so very many funerals before. Beneath a spring sky that did not match her mood, Chouji told her, "Thank you, Ino." When he then leaned his head against hers with a weariness that made her chest ache, she understood at last that his pain was now hers in a way that it had never been before.

Her mother had been right.

Ino knew she was in trouble when she described how kind Chouji's eyes were to Sakura the last time they'd met for drinks. Sakura had smiled against her glass. "Uh-huh. Kind eyes. Always there for you. Always looking out for you. Forces you to be honest with yourself. This is sounding very familiar." She leaned closer. "What about his smile, Ino? Does it fill you with light and inspire you to think of stupid, cheesy metaphors until you gross yourself out?" She grinned. "Do you want to feed him beef from your chopsticks?"

Damn that Sakura.

If it had been anyone else but Chouji, Ino wouldn't have hesitated to say something-that wasn't her way. But this was different. Ino didn't have the best luck when it came to making relationships last, and she couldn't imagine living a life without Chouji in it. She worried that these new feelings were part of some passing emotion brought about because Chouji was always the one looking after her, noticing things, and speaking the truth. The man hadn't cared that she smelled like a nine day mission at the funeral of his favorite student. _Who wouldn't fall a little bit for that?_ It was a relationship she couldn't risk losing.

But it seemed that her mother hadn't liked Ino's conclusion. _"When your mom heard, she said I had to take you out before I go."_

Ino hid her cheek against her palm and turned her face toward the sun's warmth. _She is so dead._

Ino knew she was blushing beneath her hand, and though it had never bothered her before, she felt self-conscious about the way her legs were jammed against Chouji's beneath the table. After all, his legs were no longer the soft, doughy limbs he'd had when they were young. She was hyper-aware of the strength in them, and of their warmth just beneath the thin layer of cloth that separated her skin from his. She could feel the firmness of his muscles against hers, and it drove her crazy because she couldn't move her legs away now or it would be obvious she didn't want to touch him, and that would be awkward, and there was really nowhere to move her legs to anyway. She was sweating. It was getting difficult to breathe. _Oh, Hell._

Her mind caught up with Chouji's words and disappointment overrode embarrassment. She straightened. "Wait. You're leaving tomorrow?" She was surprised how much the disappointment hurt. She wanted to whine, "_But I just got back...and you were home this time."_

Ino watched Chouji's thick fingers as they held his chopsticks. His feathered hair fluttered slightly in the rising steam. "Yeah." He turned strips of meat on the grill without seeming too upset about his departure or appearing to notice her shifting moods. This irritated her.

"Can we eat already?" she snapped.

He came to himself. "Oh. Yeah. Itadakimasu!"

#

They ate, and Ino consumed far more than usual, but she'd been so hungry. And determined. It took every false smile and stupid story in her arsenal, but she worked until Chouji was smiling at her again, reacting to every little thing she said with his old enthusiasm. They ended up ordering more beef. That round, Ino showed Chouji the way they ate barbecue in the last village she'd gone to: in that village, you wrapped each piece of meat in lettuce and then shoved it into the mouth of your friend as an act that meant trust on one side and goodwill on the other. As far as she could tell, it was an excuse to either make your friends look ridiculous by stuffing their mouths too full of food, or it was an excuse to inadvertently touch the lips of someone you liked.

Ino did both, laughing at Chouji when he over-reacted to her fingers on his lips.

"That's just weird," he complained.

"I forced my genin to feed each other...I thought it would improve team morale."

"Did it work?"

"Nope. Just gave them something else to fight about. It was funny to watch, though."

"Heh. Well, the beef is pretty tasty with the lettuce."

They ate and talked until there was only one remaining curl of beef. Ino could have eaten it, but that piece was always Chouji's, and he didn't seem in a rush to eat it either. She leaned against the booth's rigid back and splayed her legs, hands on her stomach.

"Hee," Chouji said, watching her. "I've never seen you eat so much."

"Oh, hee yourself. I hadn't eaten anything all day, and we didn't have time to eat much yesterday either." She sighed angrily. "I can't believe you're leaving tomorrow! I wanted to meet that new little genin of yours...I sort of vaguely remember her from those classes I taught for Shizune. She's very skilled."

"Sen." Chouji grinned, and Ino smiled at the kindness in her friend's eyes. He really did have nice eyes. "She'll be sad not to meet you...you impressed her back then. Next time."

Yeah. Next time. It could be another five months before she saw him again, if their schedules continued to miss each other like this. Maybe she should get Sakura to say something to Naruto, but then Sakura would just tease her...and then Naruto would know. Once Naruto knew how she felt, _everyone_ would know, and that would just be embarrassing.

She was saved from an imminent downward thought spiral by a familiar voice.

"Save any for us?" drawled Shikamaru. Temari hovered behind him and was watching the grill with interest.

"Ooh, that's mine," she said, reaching fingers toward the last slice of beef, but Ino's chopsticks flew to intercept her.

Ino stared at Temari's finger, caught and white between her chopsticks.

This was usually the part where Temari did something noisy and unpredictable, and a distant part of Ino's brain wondered how the hell Shikamaru was going to deal with someone he couldn't predict.

_Let go,_ she told herself.

In one movement, she released Temari's finger and dropped her chopsticks, but the older girl was laughing as she rubbed her bruised finger against her chest.

"I forgot how competitive you two are about food." She eased into the seat beside Ino with grace and a sigh as Shikamaru settled across from her, his elbows on the table, his chin on his clasped hands, and his eyes on Chouji. Temari leaned against the booth's straight back and smiled at Ino. She was more relaxed than Ino had ever seen the woman. Temari lifted her arms to adjust one of her unruly pompoms, and she was...still smiling. "Sorry we're late."

_That is one seriously scary smile._

"How was your mission, Ino?" Temari asked, elbows still high as she fiddled with her hair. A flicker of confusion crossed her features, followed by intense concentration. "Huh." She jerked something from her top left pompom with an audible snap of hair and studied the object only briefly before a smirk touched her lips. She looked at Shikamaru, an earring Ino knew too well held gingerly between her slender fingers. Temari's eyelids lowered slightly. "Hmm...it seems I found a stud," she purred.

Shikamaru closed his eyes. "Temari..." But he held his hand out anyway.

It took Ino half a minute to realize she was staring at them. Across the table, Shikamaru didn't look nearly as embarrassed as he should have, though Chouji seemed to be making up for it. _And, oh my god, the earring! _ Damn that Shikamaru, flaunting their happiness this way and making her peaceful evening awkward.

"So," Temari was saying. "Your mission, Ino?"

Ino wrestled down her jealousy and gestured lazily. "Oh. Ha ha. The mission was nothing too interesting," she said through her teeth.

Meanwhile, Chouji still said nothing. He'd retreated within himself. Shikamaru was watching him with an expression somewhere between amusement and exasperation, and Ino thought she heard him mutter, "Tch. Coward." His expression was affectionate as he set his earring back into place.

Temari stretched and yawned something like, "One to talk." She was still smiling that scary smile. "Should we get another round of meat? Sake too. I'm hungry."

"Geeze, settle down," Shikamaru said, but he was already gesturing her order to the owner.

#

"They're shameless," Ino complained to Chouji as he walked her home. The sun had disappeared long ago and the moon was high. The storm clouds that had burned away during the warm afternoon now crept back into the night sky, cooling the air and her sake-flushed cheeks. "I mean, it's better than it was before, because the sexual tension was just out of control, but...so rude of them. I mean, we're hot blooded adults too, you know, and it's not like you and I can just run off and do anything we want to about that right now... You know?"

She looked to Chouji for confirmation. His eyes rarely opened fully, but they were huge as he looked at her.

_Oh._ She realized what she'd just said._ Whoops..._

But that was it. He didn't react further, and they continued their walk in comfortable silence, moving through a quiet village that had long ago gone to bed. Their feet crunched the ground in unison. A late summer wind lifted the grasses in a shushing chorus. An owl called from the camphor trees above them. Ino was relieved that her mouth hadn't run off in an attempt to explain away what she'd just said, because things were always worse when she did that. And the silence was nice.

She snuck glances at her friend as they walked. He looked so serious. Determined. _I can't believe he's leaving again tomorrow...I guess I should be glad Mom said something._ She would have been even more disappointed than she was now if they hadn't been able to meet at all.

"Where are you headed?" she asked because they were almost to her house, and she had run out of time.

"Just a day away. It's not dangerous." As usual, he had answered the question she didn't ask.

_Good._ Ino didn't like the idea of Chouji taking on dangerous missions with an inexperienced team. Naruto was a skilled Hokage, but he couldn't predict the future, and not every mission deserved its classification. She didn't want Choujito ever go through the loss of a student again.

They'd reached Ino's front door. A year ago, Ino might have lifted her hand in farewell and skipped inside without a second thought, but tonight felt different. Even Chouji looked uncomfortable as they stood on the street before her family's store. He had snaked one hand beneath his collar and was looking at the ground in a manner that was familiar but wildly out of place. He was scared. Ino's gaze narrowed. _Why? Did he lie about his mission?_

"Chouji...?"

The upstairs window opened and Ino's mother leaned out; her long hair floated in the evening breeze and her smile was wide as she gazed upon them. "Hey, kids," she sing-songed. "Why don't you come in and have tea before you go, Chouji?"

And that was the end of that. Chouji mumbled something about needing to wake up early the next the morning and fled, but Ino caught a glimpse of his face as he escaped. His expression made her cold.

It was not his mission that had him worried.

Ino shuffled inside with the heavy drag of disappointment slowing her steps. Tea together would have been nice, but it was his expression that had bothered her. She closed the shop door calmly enough, still numb as she contemplated Chouji's panicked face, but when her mother reached the bottom of the stairs, Ino realized that her hands were clenched, her body was tense, and her legs trembled with anxiety.

Ino looked at her mother and felt fury build like chakra within her. She realized she didn't need to say anything because her mother was staring at Ino in that shocked manner of hers. This was how Mother looked when she knew that she'd done something horribly wrong, and it was a face Ino usually saw directed at her father. Even the delight that had infused her mother's face not moments ago had crumbled into a husk of palpable disappointment. And pity.

_I look that bad, huh?_

"Ino..."

Among the warring emotions battling for dominance within Ino, embarrassment seemed greatest. She couldn't believe her mother asked Chouji to take her out and then clumsily asked him to come inside for tea. After all of the letters Ino had written over the last several months, it would be obvious to Chouji how she felt now. It might not have bothered her beyond a slight twinge except Ino remembered the point at which Chouji's mood had soured that night. It was somewhere around the time he'd mentioned meeting her mother at the market. He'd gotten better over the course of the evening, but the mood had never fully lifted. She'd attributed his moping to his bet, or to Daisuko, but that wasn't it.

He'd known how she felt, and it had embarrassed him. He'd been miserable all night because he didn't know how to talk to her now. Thinking about this, Ino couldn't help believing that their friendship of almost twenty years was over. Gone. Forever.

The misery Ino felt at this realization made her lean one hand against the wall. She could no longer look at her mother. She didn't need to say anything.

"Ino, I'm so sorry."

Ino shook her head, still not looking in her mother's direction. She pushed beyond her and began the slow climb upstairs. "I'm going to bed."

She went to bed, but not to sleep.

#

When she was home, Ino always saw Chouji off on his missions. She would bring healthy snacks, or soldier pills, or something easy for his genin to eat while they ran. She was still awake when dawn arrived the next morning, but she didn't go down to the gate. She didn't know if he would be hurt or relieved. It had been so long since their schedules last overlapped, she didn't know if he would even notice.

Her team had a free day, it was raining, she was pissed off at her mother, and later she was angry with her father too because Inoichi attempted to make Ino understand her mother's point of view. _"She's just worried about you, Ino." _Shikamaru was busy with Temari; Sakura was busy at the hospital and begged off taking lunch with Ino because she'd already arranged to eat with Naruto. All of Ino's friends were either training, out of town, or too damn annoying to hang around given her present mood.

When she ended up back in her bedroom, soaking wet from wandering in the rain, staring at a fly buzzing lazily overhead, Ino knew she shouldn't reach beneath her pillow. She knew what that simple action would beget. If she pulled that slim stack of letters from her pillowcase and removed the ribbon that bound them, she would regret it for the rest of the day. She would regret reading the kind words she might never see penned anew. She would parse the sentences, looking for hidden meanings-which she had already done, but she had new insight now, and new wounds to lick. She knew how badly some of those sentences would sting. If she closed her eyes, she could already see the exact shape of the words that would hurt the most: the thickness of certain letters, the crossed out phrases, the blots where he'd hesitated over a word.

_Maybe he's known for a while. Maybe he knew me before I knew myself, because that really is Chouji's way. Maybe things were already awkward, but I was too blind to notice._ So she parsed their previous encounters the way might parse the sentences in his letters. She'd been blind to her own feelings for so long, for years, but Chouji was more perceptive than she was about these things.

And, because she couldn't be certain without seeing those old, familiar words written in that sometimes measured, sometimes rushed hand by a pen that left great globs of ink in its wake, Ino slipped a hand within her pillowcase.

She was only one paragraph into the first letter before she tied all of the letters back up again and spent the rest of that day sometimes crying, sometimes curled in a ball of quiet, desperate embarrassment personified with a pillow over her head. Sometimes, she was only furious with herself, frustrated with her inability to take a situation like this. She was over-analyzing things.

_What the hell is wrong with me? This isn't like me._ Normally, this was when she would seek out Chouji, or write him a new letter, but she couldn't do that. This limitation just made everything worse.

The next morning, Sakura showed up in her room without knocking. She didn't comment on the state of Ino's face, or on anything at all. Her expression was grim.

"Gather your team," she said, and held up her hand. "No, don't get up. Tell them to meet you at the gate in half an hour, and then I'll tell you. Naruto will meet you there with what you need-he hasn't even been in to the office yet; the encryption team sent word directly to our place this morning, and you know what that means, Ino. You need to leave right away, and we can't send anyone else to do this...just in case." She looked at Ino. "If anything has happened out there, I'm sorry, and I know it will be difficult," her expression softened. "Ino, it has to be you who helps this time. He'll need you."

Ino felt cold all over. The vagueness of Sakura's words and the solemnity in her expression made her breath quicken. _Chouji..._ It had to be about Chouji, or Sakura wouldn't be acting like this.

"What happened?"

Sakura couldn't meet Ino's eyes. "Use your telepathy and call your team. I'll tell you when you've finished. You'll have half an hour to prepare yourself."

_Prepare yourself._ Ino realized that her friend wasn't talking about counting the number of kunai in her pouch or packing extra food or pills. The realization was like a slap in the face: she had half an hour to mentally prepare herself for this mission.

Ino drew herself together. _Tch. Like I need half an hour. _She moved her hands through the signals for her telepathy jutsu and relayed instructions to her genin. They were groggy and confused, but she knew they'd show up.

"Okay, Sakura," she said, hearing the firm resolve in her voice. She grabbed a fresh shirt from her drawer and began dressing for the mission. "Tell me what happened."


	2. In the Woods and Away from Home

**A/N: In the fog of my present head-cold, I completely neglected to thank the brilliant Kanji no Sakka both for beta-reading this fic and for completely hooking me on Naruto. (And it was her idea about the earring posts.) And, yes, I WILL be writing more in this fandom. :) Stay tuned!**

Ino leapt with her young team of genin, flying from tree to tree with impossible speed, but there was still no sign of their quarry, and the day was no more than faint pink cloud streaks above the forest. The world was gray and the shadows were long. Behind her, the brats quarreled amongst themselves, which was nothing new, but after two sleepless nights, the Hokage's panicked summoning that morning, and then a full day of strenuous travel with little to eat and no time to rest, Ino could no longer maintain her cool.

She felt a fresh wave of panic. _Where the hell is Chouji?_ She knew they had to be close to the ambush site by now, but she didn't dare use telepathy to find him. If he was in the midst of a battle, even a split second's distraction could get him killed.

Frustrated, she held out her arms and her team alighted amongst the trees.

"Finally," Shin muttered, but Ino's glare shut him up. She squatted on her branch, surveying the terrain and its wildlife. Within a minute, she'd identified her target. Hawks were good for this sort of surveillance.

"Listen: I'm scouting ahead..." She met Yuki's eyes. "Guard me." Beside Yuki squatted Shin. "Shin, you're rear guard." Minoru stared back at Ino in pink-cheeked defiance, daring her to see through him, which she did too easily. "Pay attention and don't start any fights while I'm gone. You're supposed to be a ninja, not a shrieking chimpanzee who alerts every enemy in the forest of your team's position because you're pissed off about someone spilling food on your favorite shirt last night!" Ino looked at all three and widened her eyes for emphasis. "We're heading into a dangerous situation that requires teamwork if you want to survive, so work it out while I'm gone!"

All three of them straightened. She nodded. "Be good and I'll take you guys out for barbecue or something when we get back. Bicker and you're stuck in town until your back stoops and you have hair growing out of your ears."

Her comment was met with stern resolve: three unison expressions determined to prove her doubt in them misplaced. When in doubt, Asuma-style motivation sufficed. She just wished it would last for longer than a mission.

Slowly gathering chakra, Ino wedged her body within a tree trunk's ample cleft; Yuki spun a web of chakra to hold Ino's body in place.

"Done, Sensei." Yuki's cheeks were still pink with embarrassment from Ino's lecture. She viewed herself as the perfect type, and did not enjoy exposing her flaws any more than she enjoyed praising others. Ino met Yuki's eyes and nodded.

"Okay." Ino pressed her palms together and her fingers flew into their familiar hand signals-Ram-And-Bird!-and she was moving again, her thoughts drifting in slow motion toward the hawk she'd spotted earlier. The bird twitched, sensing her approach. Its head turned. Its wings flapped. Ino feared the hawk might move before she reached him, but the moment of contact came and Ino slipped easily within the hawk's puny mind. Mind transfer complete, Ino did not pause. She sprang aloft and directed the panicked bird northeast, flapping toward their quarry, gliding on the wind so quickly her feathers rippled along her crest as she traveled farther and farther from her body and her anxious team.

After several nights without sleep, her chakra levels were depleted, but she had enough for this, and she could take some soldier pills later. Through training and self-discipline, she'd increased her stamina for this jutsu over the years, but she didn't have much longer than twenty minutes to accomplish her objective-thirty if she was extremely lucky and managed her chakra well. It was one of the many areas where her medical training had helped.

Though she pushed the bird so hard she knew that she'd ripped the muscles within her own arms, Ino found her objective-damn, but they were another hour away. Her quarry had eleven hostages, all civilians, some of them children. He was alone, separated from the rest of the ambush party. He kept his hostages locked within a water prison that he sustained with one hand, impatient, staring into the woods with expectation. It was just as Naruto had hypothesized, which meant that the rest of the man's ambush party was still busy with Chouji's team.

Hope pushed Ino onward, and on a second spiral above the woods, Ino saw with relief that her enemy's back-up would never arrive. Chouji had been busy. Her friend was also an hour away by normal methods, standing among the fallen bodies of the enemy as he directed his genin with hand signals. Quiet. He knew they were near the hostages, but did not know how near.

But the bird's eye view wasn't enough to gain a sense of the hostage situation's urgency. She had a little bit of chakra left. Perching the hawk on a branch overhead, Ino steeled herself and dipped into the mind of the water nin. So long as she didn't force him to act differently or otherwise alert him to her presence-if she could just dip one corner of her mind into his-he wouldn't notice.

She met with seething hatred. Memories of past kills. Anticipation and excitement for the kill to come. Impatience with his leader. Suspicions of his teammates. The smell and taste of blood. Idle desire to kill ahead of schedule. Faint thread of hesitation because the aftermath of a sudden bloodbath would cause personal trouble.

All of this she plucked from the enemy's mind in the barest fraction of an instant.

When her prey reflected at length on the pretty girl amongst his hostages - when he mentally caressed her smooth skin, undecided between murder or something else as his mind wandered into fantasy - Ino canceled her jutsu. She fell back into her body in a rush through miles and miles so swift she thwacked her head against the tree hard enough to see faint pinpricks of light in the air before her. Once more amongst her young teammates, breathing hard, she leaned against the tree and regained control of her racing heart. Her physical reaction was worse than usual. She'd over-extended herself.

"Damn," she muttered weakly. The water-nin's images had been strong. So strong. She would have nightmares for weeks.

"Ino-sensei!" she heard Yuki exclaim. The girl's brown eyes were warm with concern, as were the eyes of her other teammates. "You were gone so long..." There were remnants of fear in her voice.

_That long, huh?_

Ino's arms ached from the hawk's flight, as she'd known they would, and she was barely able to move her head. She had no idea how long she'd been gone, but knew it was the longest she'd ever used that jutsu. She'd consumed almost every last morsel of stamina within her body to sustain the mind-body transfer. Even breathing seemed like too much effort right now.

_Well. That's what soldier pills are for..._

But she wasn't so weak that she didn't notice the way her team had changed while she was gone. For once Yuki, Shin, and Minoru were getting along and paying proper attention to their surroundings. While maintaining their duties, they talked quietly amongst each other, discussing what to do next without ego or condescension. They were united in their concern for her. Ino smiled weakly at them. Their concerned faces were almost enough to overcome the awful images newly imprinted on her mind, super-imposing themselves over the darkness she'd felt during most of the previous day. She felt a swell of pride, but could imagine Asuma's lazy visage looking at her, slightly unfocused, with that stupid, eye-stinging cigarette dangling from his lips. _Focus on the task at hand, Ino. Don't get so damn distracted all the time._

Okay. The thought of Chouji facing that bastard alone had been enough for Ino to shake off her selfish shame spiral of angsty doom and then drive her kids to the edge of their limit, and Ino to hers. Now she knew that Choji wouldn't be alone after all, that they could converge on the enemy at the same time.

And it seemed that the hostages weren't in any particular danger either, not immediately, but Ino didn't like the bent of the water-nin's thoughts. Even now, miles away, she could not shake the gloom his mind had inspired. His thoughts prodded hers, stirring the darkness within her, dredging up every self doubt, every anxiety, and every fear.

Ino steeled herself to it. The important thing was that her group was not too late after all; they hadn't rushed for nothing. The water-nin could eat slugs and die for all she cared, hell yeah! So what if Chouji didn't know how to treat her anymore? If she never brought up their awkward parting, perhaps they could just stumble back into some sort of normal friendship, but maybe without the letters, and...

_And this is really not the right time to be thinking about this. Pull it together, Ino!_

"You guys eat?" Ino asked, and they nodded.

After Yuki cancelled the chakra threads that bound Ino's body, Ino unbent from her crouched position, popped a few soldier pills into her mouth, and fished a hunk of something edible from her pouch. She ate it absently while her mind assimilated the details. This guy was worse than she expected. He might be alone and have one hand tied up with his water-prison technique, but the images she'd seen depicted him surviving worse odds. All she and Chouji had were six inexperienced genin. Ino looked at her kids as she chewed. They were re-packing their things, preparing to move. One of them could very well die today.

She could feel the soldier pills working, filling her body with energy. Her mood lifted a little.

Six barely-trained genin were better than three. He didn't need her yet, but Chouji would, and she had promised Asuma to protect him. Determined, Ino rose from her position and signaled the rest of her team.

"We're close." She allowed them a small, encouraging smile. "Good work, brats. This guy is strong, but we won't face him alone. Keep alert. You ready?"

They smiled back at her, unfazed, and leapt through the woods behind her. Tree to tree, silent and focused, as they moved toward the water-nin.

"Who're we meeting?" Yuki asked.

This was not the first time her subordinates had asked this question that day, and it was not a question Ino cared to answer because she knew exactly what her genin would think. They knew about the letters, of course. She was well acquainted with the buzz of speculation and silent joking that followed the arrival of each new letter.

Normally, Ino didn't bother avoiding such speculation. She never tired of speaking the words, "He's just a friend." It wasn't until her mother had discovered the letters that Ino found the grins and groans of her teammates annoying instead of cute. Before, their gossip had merely reminded Ino of the way she'd speculated with Chouji about Asuma and Kurenai.

It's just that...after everything that had happened that week, Ino thought such speculation would be too painful to handle. Just thinking about it caused that dull ache to return and intensify.

But the soldier pills had helped some, and her group would join Chouji's soon enough. Better to get the buzz and speculation over with before their groups converged. Kinda like ripping off a bandage. One, two, three...

Ino stared straight ahead, her expression determined; she braced herself for their reaction. "Team Chouji," she said.

Yuki did not speak, but Ino sensed the crackle of her student's broad grin and she heard the exact tone of Minoru's voice when he groaned a half-hearted, "Aww, again?"

It hurt worse than she thought it would.

"Don't be annoying," Ino snapped.

On the next branch, Ino pushed off a little harder, crushing the wood beneath her feet, running ahead of the kids to better ignore the looks she knew they gave each other because she had over-reacted. She only wished she could ignore the darkness that squeezed her heart. She tried desperately not to think of the future. Right now, the only future that mattered was the one where she saved Chouji.

#

When they drew closer to the enemy's position, Minoru made a strangled sound, but Ino had felt it too. It felt like Chouji had used _that_ jutsu.

"Chakra," he said, and they moved the direction he indicated.

Her team arrived just in time, like heroes. After telepathically directing her genin to serve as distractions, Ino tucked her body into a screen of bushes behind the stationary enemy. The weakness of Ino's jutsu was that her opponent needed to stay within her target long enough for her slow-moving projection to reach him. But the idiot had his hand thrust within his water prison, trapped though he spun shuriken at Chouji and his dodging genin with lazy ease. Chouji had the handicap of wanting to protect not only his teammates but also the hostages trapped within the prison.

The water-nin acted as though he had already won the fight, and Chouji's team was clearly low on chakra from both the ambush and their previous battle. The water-nin might have defeated them if Ino hadn't arrived.

If.

Smirking, Ino entered Chouji's mind just long enough to warn him of her presence and suggest their old maneuver, and then-Ram-And-Bird!-she overtook the water-nin's mind. It was time to make that bastard suffer.

Her victim did not have time to prepare himself, and she had been in his mind before, so Ino knew exactly what ideas would shove him deep within his darkest self. Ino felt filthy inhabiting his mind and skin, and she was _fully _there this time, not just dipping a toe into the fetid water, but it couldn't be helped. Their struggle of wills was brief: Ino had surprise and indignation on her side. He won another sort of battle altogether as new images added to the old ones he'd given her, some of them involving people she knew, but there was no time to process this, and even in the most depressed corner of her mind, she was tough enough to overcome the bastard.

Fully in control of her quarry, Ino looked at Chouji through her enemy's eyes and smirked. Winning that battle made her feel better already.

"Glad to see me?"

His eyes disappeared as he smiled. "Ino."

Ino released the enemy's water prison while Chouji explained to his genin that reinforcements had arrived. His exhausted team smiled as they leaned against each other, panting in relief.

Ino located her subordinates and waved at them. "Yuki! Bind me."

Chouji directed his genin and Ino's remaining teammates in caring for the freed hostages. She spotted Sen right away; the tiny medical-nin cast repeated anxious glances in the water-nin/Ino's direction as she tended the survivors.

Yuki approached. With practiced efficiency, she bound Ino's borrowed body.

"Don't worry about Ino's comfort," Chouji called from his side of the clearing.

"I never do," Yuki answered, face impassive. True enough. Ino suppressed her smile, knowing her amusement would annoy the girl, but Ino found Yuki's tough exterior cute.

When Yuki had finished, Ino made a few attempts to escape the binding while Chouji stood beyond them, squinting at her again. He was happy to see her, and the relief she felt upon seeing his sustained smile overwhelmed her. Maybe everything would be okay. Maybe their friendship wasn't ruined after all. And, oh...he'd over-extended himself again, which meant that he was about fifty pounds slimmer and it wasn't that she didn't find Chouji attractive generally, because she'd abandoned that sort of shallow thinking long ago, but the shift in weight was like seeing your friend after he or she had a really good haircut. The change forced her to see Chouji anew, and he really did look pretty damn good.

...Aaaaaand the water-nin's body was reacting to that. Perverted bastard. Ino flushed with embarrassment. The ugly killer probably hadn't blushed since he was thirteen. Ino did multiplication tables in her head to distract herself and hoped that Chouji hadn't noticed. She hoped that none of them had noticed.

"You're getting better at it," she said to Yuki after one final attempt to escape the bonds which was mostly an excuse to turn her body away from anyone who might notice. "Um...can you gag me, please?" She didn't want the water-nin saying anything she didn't want the others to hear. She directed her thoughts at him. _I am seriously going to kill you, you perverted piece of..._. She flashed Yuki a smile before canceling her jutsu and returning to her body.

During the mind-body swap, Ino had fallen against the bushes and punctured her cheek. Her arms still ached from flying as a hawk, and now they ached from attempting to escape Yuki's binding, but Ino ignored the pain as she rose from her hiding place. Chouji needed her. They had to get the hostages back to the village and take their prisoner in for interrogation before this mission could be officially counted as a success.

But first...

Ignoring protocol-because after the last few days, she'd earned this moment, and she didn't give a crap about protocol or what any of their genin knuckleheads would think-Ino embraced her old friend. If she held on a little tighter this time, Chouji didn't comment on it. He didn't even react in embarrassment. Beneath the blood, sweat, and worry he smelled like sunshine and barbeque chips. He smelled like the better days of childhood, and in his spirit there was not a trace of the darkness and danger that had permeated the days since their last meeting. And she needed that moment of light.

Hugging Chouji wasn't enough to banish the darkness, but everything seemed a little better, a little easier when she leaned her head against the soft spot between the open flaps of his flak jacket. His kind heart was in there, somewhere beneath that flesh, and she could hear it calmly beating. And, in that quiet, perceptive way of his that had nothing to do with telepathy, he seemed to understand what she needed. His arms closed around her, briefly. It was a short hug, nothing weird or worth commenting on, not even when his hands brushed against the bare skin on her back, but Ino felt as comforted as though she were in bed at home, warm beneath her blankets as a new day's sun slanted light against them both, heating her skin...

_Uh...oh, crap. Not again. _

"Hmm." He released her, oblivious. "Hey, Ino." He smiled. "Thanks for saving our asses again." When he smiled like that, his eyes were happy squints of light, but Ino was too annoyed with herself to dwell on that.

"I keep telling you," she said, hands safely on her hips. Damn hormones. "I promised Asuma I'd keep you out of trouble." She frowned, taking in his appearance again. It really was no damn wonder she'd started thinking about soft beds and the rest of that dangerous, annoying whatnot. Ino punched him in the stomach. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU GIGANTIC DUMMY? YOU COULD HAVE KILLED YOURSELF!"

"WHO'S GIGANTIC? JUST DEFENDING MY TEAM, YOU SKINNY BITCH! JUST HOW MANY SOLDIER PILLS HAVE YOU HAD TODAY ANYWAY? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

It was a show...well, half a show, but the dropped jaws from their genin subordinates suggested that nobody would be gossiping about their relationship...tonight, anyway. Unless they were gossiping about which jonin would kill the other first. And that was good. There was a job to do. Work to do. Important work. There wasn't time for gossip.

Ino still felt raw and ready to fight, but when she turned again to Chouji, he was the picture of patient calm. He was quietly addressing the tiny Sen, the lone survivor from Team Four last winter. It made sense for the Hokage to put Sen with Chouji after he lost a team member that spring. Naruto always seemed to know who needed to work with whom.

"...I'm sure Ino-san would not mind," he said, one large hand on the genin's shoulder. "Ino? Sen's found something unusual with one of the hostages."

"I'll be right there," she said, waving the girl ahead, and she approached Chouji one more time.

"You okay?"

He swallowed, and she could have sworn there were new worry lines etched into his forehead. "Ino...I'm glad you came. We wouldn't have made it...not all of us."

What she couldn't say was how fast she'd run, and how much she'd risked to get to him on time because she didn't want Chouji to go through another loss again. Not ever.

Ino plucked at the loose fabric of his shirt and extended it as far as it would go, to where Chouji's body had still been before he'd converted all of that fat to chakra. She smirked, because humor was best at a time like this. _"We wouldn't have made it...not all of us," _he'd said.

"Not all of you did."

Chouji laughed despite himself. "Bitch."

#

During the long trek to the village where the hostages had been seized, Ino walked between Sen and Yuki, instructing both girls further regarding the hostage's peculiar medical case. At one point, Ino made the mistake of looking behind them to check on her boys. Minoru and Shin were chatting happily with the former hostages, but it was Chouji that she really noticed. And Chouji who noticed her. He stood behind everyone, the prisoner slung over his broad shoulder and a warm expression on his tattooed face as he watched Ino and the two girls. Her body filled with warmth and hear face heated; Ino turned quickly turned to hug both Sen and Yuki closer to her.

"Almost there!" she sing-songed. "I see chimney smoke."

#

While Chouji escorted the prisoner to the local jail, Ino and the others settled the recovered hostages with their families. Though the hour was late, the village entrance soon filled with people both bleary-eyed from sleep and red-eyed from lack of sleep. But all of these new faces held smiles, and many of these faces were wet with the sudden tears that sprang so often from relief.

"Um...not to complain," Minoru said, and Ino was fairly certain the young genin did not intend to clutch his stomach as he did, but she felt the hunger keenly as well.

"Tch," Shin muttered, but his voice lacked its usual hint of vinegar.

Ino smiled at them and pointed. "This way. There's an old shinobi way house...should be well stocked this time of year." And when Sen hesitated, looking back the way Chouji had gone, Ino placed one hand upon the girl's back. "Chouji knows the way."

#

But long after eating and long after the young shinobi laid their pads on the tatami mats and passed out upon them, Ino worried that perhaps Chouji did not remember after all. She huddled near the door with the screen parted just enough to watch for him. They had been there with Asuma once before and once again after he died. The room seemed so much smaller now.

She missed the cigarette stink.

In the silence, while the younger shinobi snored beneath their blankets, Ino could no longer avoid the images implanted within her while she inhabited the water-nin: bodies_. _So, so many bodies. The memories of kills which did not belong to her, and the memories of bodies bleeding into the hungry earth reminded her of Asuma. It reminded her of Chouji's face when he thought his father and Kakashi had died during Pain's invasion; it reminded her of Shizune dying right before her eyes. Yeah, Kakashi and Shizune had both come back to life, _but they had been dead._ And it reminded her of everyone who had died during the Fourth Great Shinobi War, the ones who hadn't come back to life. It reminded her of the lives she couldn't save because she'd run out of chakra and soldier pills.

"Oh," she said, hoarse from the ache of suppressed sobs. She didn't dare let herself grieve openly for fear of waking the others, but she was at her emotional limit, and the dangerous part of the day had passed. Her father had said, once, that it was important to take care of these emotions right away, that they were no less real or poignant if they belonged to someone else first because they belonged to her now. And it was safe here in this old, familiar place that was part of her past and part of her present.

Ino touched her forehead to her knees and allowed the tears to fall until she'd soaked her skirt. She couldn't have stopped them if she wanted to.

_I am turning into the biggest damn crybaby._

The building groaned and shifted. Ino looked up to find Chouji staring at her through the half-opened door. He said nothing, only watched her face as he removed his foot from the porch with deliberate slowness. Still watching her, he sat, his body turned toward the courtyard and a brilliant expanse of stars. He placed one large palm face down against the deck beside him. Ino swiped her eyes and half-walked, half-crawled toward him-she had to slide the door a little to squeeze outside, but the noise did not rouse their subordinates.

She sat beside him and he put his arm around her in that familiar, friendly way. Ino shuddered as she leaned against him. So warm. _I'm so glad I didn't lose this. _She closed her eyes, enjoying the soft snores of their genin and the breeze that sent tendrils of hair sliding one by one along her cheek to tickle her nose.

"Ah, Ino," he breathed. "It was the water-nin, wasn't it? I stayed for most of his interrogation, just in case. He did such terrible things during the war, and terrible things after too." Chouji began that slow, rhythmic movement of his hand against her back that was so familiar to her. "I worried about you. But we stopped him, Ino. There's one less of them out there, now."

He was right.

"The resentment he had..." Ino said. "No one came to his village's aid that day when the war began. He lost everything, and he still resents us for that. It reminds me of...well. You know." Sasuke. It was still so appalling the way their classmate had fallen into darkness. Though Sasuke was now a stable member of the village again, committed to righting past wrongs, he was a breathing example of how far a spirit of vengeance could drive a person from humanity.

Ino sighed, and Chouji's arm came again to rest around her shoulders. His long hair tickled her bare arms. One of the genin rolled over and the floorboards groaned, reminding Ino of where they were.

"A grudge over food is deeper than the ocean," Chouji quoted softly, and Ino didn't mistake him the way the others might have. She knew perfectly well he wasn't talking about food.

"We can't be everywhere at once," Ino grumbled, bitter. "We didn't exclude that water-nin's village on purpose. We could barely protect our own village that day."

"The insurrectionists will understand some day," and Chouji didn't need to explain his faith. The Hokage held the power to change people, to transform them. "If we try to understand them."

The soldier pills were wearing off.

Sleepy, so very sleepy, Ino reached one arm around Chouji's lower back and curled against his side. He was so warm and soft. She placed one hand against his heart, against that silly kanji for "EAT," that amused him so deeply, and she could feel a cavernous, shuddering sigh rumble through his body. His arm around her shoulder tightened, and he touched his head to hers, awakening her other desires, the ones she strived to keep in check. His nose slid against her cheek, and his lips were just a slight turn of her head away from hers. Was he doing that on purpose? Ino's pulse quickened. This was very different from the usual way he held her. His guard was down, and hers was too. The danger of the moment zinged through her nerves like lightning.

"You have such a kind, kind heart, Chouji," she said, overwhelmed by her conflicting desires. She'd spent two days believing she'd lost his friendship forever and here she was, tempted to ruin everything for good. Except...she thought she knew what these signals meant. This changed things a little.

"..." His nose slid until his cheek was against hers. She was trembling, and this was now officially a problem which Ino could no longer ignore.

Ino turned her head so that he was against her hair and she considered separating herself entirely, though she didn't want to. She had to put a stop to this, and she certainly couldn't continue relying on Chouji in this way. Getting this close to him was too distracting. She just needed to find some other way to pick herself up on the dark days. Maybe she could take up reading. It seemed to work for Kakashi...

Chouji's entire body was stiff, wary. His heart beat wildly beneath her hand, which didn't help her resolve. Ino dropped her hand to her lap.

"I don't know anyone kinder," she continued. "Unless someone takes the last slice of meat from the grill," she amended, and saying this, she intended to laugh, but it came out as a sob instead. He laughed, because he couldn't see her face then, and he didn't notice.

"You're one to talk. I couldn't believe when you did that to Temari..." He stopped. He'd noticed. "Ino...?"

Ino wiped her eyes, but it was a pointless exercise. She moved away enough so that he had to drop his arm. Time to stop this. "I'm sorry...Look, I'm sorry about my mom. You can just forget about all of that, right?"

"Hunh? About what? What did your mom do?"

And when she couldn't answer beyond a vague wave of her hands and a, "You know," he started rubbing her back again. That just wasn't fair. Honestly, this was worse than sitting next to him as he ate chip after delicious chip, taunting her with the overwhelming smell of barbecue, grinning because he knew exactly how difficult it was for her to resist dipping her hand into the bag of salty goodness and grabbing a fistful. _"Do you want one, Ino? What? How come you're on a diet again? Hee Hee." _Jerk.

"Not really. Sorry, Ino."

Shikamaru and Asuma had never understood why she and Chouji fought so much about food all those years ago. Every single bloody time she called Chouji fat and ordered him to diet, Chouji tempted her with a striptease of food. He was every bit as kind and good as people believed, but when it came to food, Chouji was downright evil sometimes, and it went way beyond beating people up for eating the last scrap of food on their plates as though he was some vengeful food demon that required your last morsel as some sort of fucking sacrifice. This whole rubbing the back thing? It felt like he was deliberately teasing her.

"Well, everything was so awkward that night, and I thought..."

"Oh. That." He sounded embarrassed. "Well, there was that dare I made with Shikamaru, and...you said it was lame for someone to confess because of a dare, so then I didn't want to say anything to you because I..." His voice trailed off. "Oh. Wait. Maybe I should have just said something to you back then, because you probably think this is even lamer."

And while he tried to laugh this off, realization sparked Ino's senses and she at last understood what he was saying. _"You said it was lame for someone to confess because of a dare, so then I didn't want to say anything to you..." _She clutched the fabric at the small of his back, and Chouji's nervous laughter died. In fact, he stopped moving completely, even the backrub part though his hand remained against her. She wasn't sure if he was breathing; she didn't breathe as the details of that night at the barbecue clicked into place. She recalled the exact words spoken, the looks given, and the phrases exchanged and now interpreted them with this new lens of information: the subject of the Chouji-Shikamaru dare had been one loud-mouthed bitch who took the rug of confidence from beneath Chouji by saying something completely rude and dumb.

Ino realized her mouth was open. She looked up at him. He was watching her closely with those kind eyes. It was too dark to notice things like color or see things like reflections or any of that, but the intensity was there. This was that serious, brave side of Chouji that not everyone got to see. Ino couldn't look away.

_Actually, Chouji, this isn't lame at all._

"You like me."

"Yeah." She could hear him swallow. "I hope that's okay...I don't want to ruin our friendship or anything, but something changed after Daisuko died and I feel like maybe you...I don't know." He sighed and his free hand was in his hair. "It just seems like things are changing, and it's starting to hurt inside, like I'm lying to you or something." He was looking up at the stars, now. "It's getting really difficult to act normal around you, and then Shikamaru and Temari the other night...with all of those hormones flying around, what a nightmare. I wanted to shove that stupid earring in Shikamaru's eyeball."

Ino sighed, because his words were so close to how she felt it was scary. "Chouji...I'm sorry for what I said about the dare. I shouldn't have said that."

"It's fine." He grinned. "No, really. You were right! What a totally lame ass reason to confess to someone."

"Chouji..." She imagined how differently that night might have been had he confessed instead of running away outside her door. Maybe if her stupid mother hadn't interrupted them, he'd have said something anyway, despite her blunder at the restaurant. "Actually, Chouji, I don't really think-"

"-Oh, never mind that, Ino, I don't care," he interrupted. He was laughing and nervous. "We can still hang out, right? I'm not scaring you away, right? I know it might be awkward at first, and you can just shove me away if I do something weird or uncomfortable, but...I can't lie about this anymore." He laughed again. Each time he did, she felt a profound discomfort. "So what did you think was going on that night? You haven't been this tense in years...something got you worked up. Heh-heh. Everything's okay in Konoha, right?"

Ino put a hand on his knee. That shut him up. "I was tense because you ran away after Mom invited you in for tea. I thought we ended our friendship that night."

"What?" She could hear his confusion clearly in that single word. "How?"

Ino drew a deep breath. He'd confessed how he felt, so she couldn't just leave the situation alone. She still didn't know if it was better to date or better to remain as they were, but Chouji's confession had already changed everything. Telling him how she felt wouldn't make things either better or worse.

"Okay. This might take a while."

"That's okay." He sounded bewildered.

Behind them, one of the genin sighed in his sleep. A slight breeze made Ino wish she was wearing something a little warmer. She folded her arms over her chest to warm them. She couldn't read Chouji's face in the dark, but she could tell that he was watching her.

"Okay, I guess I'd better start. Well, ever since the funeral, I've felt that things were different too. And, like you, it's become impossible for me to ignore my feelings for you. I'm always worrying about you, or wishing you were around. I've written you so many letters that my stupid group of knuckleheads tease me about it. My mom and I got into a huge fight when she found my stack of your letters." She blushed at this.

"See, my mom thinks we should just date if we like each other, but you know me, Chouji...I keep getting entangled with my friends, and then they get sick of me and all my stupid bitching-" She tried to laugh this off, but it came off sounding false even to her ears. "And then when we stop seeing each other, I've lost another friend."

Chouji still hadn't said anything, and she was getting nervous.

Ino swallowed. "So, I told my mom that I didn't want to risk losing your friendship. But then Mom told you to take me out, and then she asked you to come in for tea...and I saw your face when you ran away." The pain of that day returned with such intensity that she clutched the front of her shirt. "So I thought that you knew everything by then, and that our friendship was over."

Eyes still shut, Chouji pressed his lips together. "You really think I'd abandon a twenty year friendship over something stupid like that? Geeze, Ino."

"Well..." she thought about getting defensive, but anger sparked instead. "Well, how the hell was I supposed to know why you ran away, dumb ass coward?"

He had been angry, but now he was furious. When his eyes snapped open, she recoiled. "Well, there's no way I would ever do that. Ever. Ino, those so-called friends, the ones who went out with you and then broke your heart? Those guys, every single one of them, they were idiots! I'm just mad I never said so, but...I was always afraid that if I started in on them, I'd never stop until you knew exactly how I felt, and that's my fault. Shikamaru warned me. Look-"

And he was looking at her, _really_ looking at her, the way he did right before saying something that was difficult to hear but necessary. She braced herself for the worst.

"Ino, everyone knows that you're bitchy and bossy, but so what?" His expression softened. "You only act that way when you care about people...and your true friends know that. It's so obvious." The wind was moving again and it blew her hair across her face. Choji hooked one finger around the long end of her bang and gave it a gentle tug, setting it back into place so that he could see her. "But lately, when you yell at me...actually, sometimes, even back when we were kids..." he swallowed. His face was so close to hers now, and his voice finished, low, "When you yell at me, I know that you love me."

Ino didn't dare speak as Chouji's shaking hand smoothed her forehead and tucked her hair behind her ears. His hesitation was so sweet to her, and she knew a little of how he felt...how there were things you wanted to do but didn't feel brave enough to try. But he'd said just the right thing as usual. He'd known exactly what would give her the courage to move forward. Ino unclenched the fabric of his shirt and instead sought lower until it found the hem of his tunic. She slipped her hand beneath and up, reaching until she could feel the warmth and strength of his back beneath her palm. She had expected him to say the worst, but he'd given her something so totally unexpected. As usual. He was always more perceptive than she thought.

But then his words caught up with her. She clenched her teeth. "Wait. Did you just call me a bitch...fat ass?"

"Hee. Yeah." His eyes disappeared as he gave her the peace sign. "I said I know it's how you show your love, right? But did I mention that I think it's cute, too?"

Ino blinked at him, taking in his smile and confident hand sign. One moment passed, two, and then she dissolved into helpless laughter. "You idiot." She got braver and walked her fingers a little farther up his back, to where the skin was warmer.

"Wait..." He shifted so that she was no longer against his arm or his side. His hands trembled upon her shoulders, his palms sweated, and this was the only warning she had before his soft lips crashed against hers and brought that ache, always just beneath everything and sharp as a shuriken, surging to the surface. The ache shattered. The pain was exquisite.

"Oh, hell yeah," she breathed, and he laughed against her mouth before completely distracting her all over again when his lips began to move. This was it. The endless diet was over, and there was instead a feast of lips and tongue. In the moments she'd allowed herself to think on it, Ino had imagined that Chouji would kiss the way he ate his food, but he didn't. He was surprisingly gentle and slow, savoring. Even that first touch of his tongue against hers was gentle, and she wondered distantly if lips could be kind. It felt like he was listening to her through them, paying careful attention as he always did, hearing what she didn't say and interpreting what she did say so that she came out something better than she was.

This time, when Ino moved her fingers up his back, he reacted with fingers of his own, and then hands_. _Warm, soft hands just resting on the bare skin above her hips.

"Oh..." she said, breathing hard, leaning in for seconds, but Chouji pressed his forehead against hers, stopping her. He was no less out of breath than she was.

"Ino," he said, and the way he spoke her name made her smile. This was Chouji, and he thought her bitchiness was an act of love. How long had he practiced that line anyway? Genius...

Ino leaned in again, but Chouji turned his face away, grinning. He was squinting again.

"Hee hee. No, stop. Look." He turned her face with a gentle finger. "We woke everyone."

Ino followed his gaze and found six faces pressed against each other as they strained to watch through the open door. Yuki's face was covered in a sheen of tears, but she was smiling.

"I knew it," Yuki said, nudging Shin. "I told you so."

"We thought you hated us," Minoru told Ino.

"No," Shin said, annoyed. "You thought she hated you."

Ino clenched her jaw. "I DO HATE YOU. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PERVERTED CHILDREN DOING? If you guys don't go back to bed and close that door, I'm not taking you anywhere tomorrow!"

Chouji was laughing. "See?" He told them. "She loves you." He readjusted his hand against Ino's bare waist and shifted her closer to him. Ino flushed to her hairline. With his other hand Chouji leaned toward the genin and his thick fingers clutched the door frame. "So, goodnight." The kids recoiled in time to avoid the sudden slide as Chouji drew the door shut between them.

"Goodnight!" they chorused, and then followed the buzz of barely suppressed excitement and giggles that Ino had always been afraid of, but didn't mind now. Beside her, against her, Chouji shook with silent laughter.

"What?" she murmured.

When he turned his head Ino's direction, his smile was as wide as she'd ever seen it and it warmed her to her toes.

"They're just so cute! Were we ever that cute?"

She thought of a younger Chouji taunting her with food and grinned. "Hell yeah we were." She paused, inching closer to him. He stilled. "What I want to know is how I'm supposed to get your earring stuck in my hair tonight." She rubbed her head against his ear. "But I think you need ratty pony tails for that trick. My hair's too slippery."

He was still laughing silently. "Don't be perverted."

"Hm." She gave up. "I'm too damn tired to be anyway." She settled beside him, curling against his side the way she had earlier. His arm tightened around her. "I wish I wasn't tired, though," she mumbled. "Hot blooded adult, you know. And you're lips...who the hell have you been practicing on, anyway? I don't know whether to thank her or claw her eyes out."

He was still laughing. "No one, I swear."

"Oh, fine, I believe you."

That sense of peace and home was returning. She could feel her breathing slow and deepen. Her eyes drifted shut and she yawned as she nestled closer, "I should crawl onto my sleeping mat before I fall asleep here. I haven't slept since..." she couldn't think, couldn't calculate the days. "I don't know, but it was before you left, so...I guess you could say it's been a pretty long day."

"I knew you were taking soldier pills again. Gotta stop doing that, Ino." His hold on her shifted abruptly, startling her, and suddenly she was in his lap and her head was against the smooth fabric of his shoulder. "God, I've wanted to do that for a long time. There. More comfortable?"

"Mm, yeah but we're still in the middle of a mission," she said. "I can't stay here with you."

"Yes you can and no we're not. I filed our report before I got back here." He sounded amused.

"Still, this isn't setting a very good example, and it's getting cold..." But she didn't protest any further, and she sighed happily when he put his arms around her, enveloping her in warmth. "That's better."

"I'll move you later. Don't worry." Then, "I forgot how talkative you are before you fall asleep. Shikamaru used to call you a tranquilizer behind your back; said it put him right to sleep."

"Heh...jerk. I bet you thought that was funny of him."

"Well...he's a funny guy."

"Mmm. You know, if we'd done this when we were as young as those knuckleheads behind us are, Asuma would have given us nine kinds of hell." Chouji's hand drifted along her arm and then down her hip in the same careful, studied way his lips had moved before. She smiled against his shoulder. "Goodnight."

She felt his warm breath against her forehead and his lips followed.

"Yeah. Thanks again, Ino."

She was still awake for a few minutes after that, though she was too tired to say anything. The breeze continued, but it seemed only pleasant now that she was protected and warm. The genin were settling back into sleep, too, judging by the renewed sounds of steady breathing. The stars...she didn't know about the stars because her eyes were closed, but Chouji continued to do stupid little things like touch her hair or smooth her skirt, and that was as beautiful as any tangle of galaxies in the sky above them.

Ino cast one weary corner of her mind to a mind resting a full day away, but it was a place she knew well, and it was always easy to find her.

_Mom? I'm sorry._ And she sent her mother an image of where she was at the moment. And what she was doing.

Her mom didn't send back words so much as approval and excitement - she was pretty much incoherent in her delight. Ino had a feeling that by the time she and Chouji arrived back in Konoha, their mothers would have their entire futures planned out for them, but that was a problem for another day.

For now she focused on the language of Chouji's hands, and she let them sing her to sleep.


End file.
